Whether your Florida business runs on tow trucks, rental cars, delivery cars or other vehicles, commercial auto insurance is a must if you want to survive and thrive for years to come. By covering your fleet with the appropriate kinds and levels of insurance, you can protect against the very real danger of lawsuits from injured parties or damage resulting from accidents. Let's take a closer look at how commercial auto insurance works -- and why it's just as critical for your business as workers compensation insurance, flood insurance, and other essential forms of business insurance in Florida.

Why It's Necessary

Why should you buy commercial auto insurance for your vehicles? For one thing, state law mandates that you can't register a commercial vehicle unless it meets certain coverage minimums. Florida is a no fault state, meaning that insurance covers a sizable chunk of the damages that might otherwise end up in small claims court. It also means that you are required to maintain at least $10,000 worth of Personal Injury Protection, or PIP, and a minimum of $10,000 in damage liability coverage per vehicle.

But even with these stipulations, some business owners allow their commercial auto policies to lapse as a money-saving measure -- and that's a huge mistake. By eliminating that protection against civil damages and your ability to get compensated for damage to your fleet, you leave yourself wide open for financial disaster. A single uncovered incident might suffice to torpedo your enterprise once and for all. As long as you own, lease, rent, or operate company vehicles, you need to maintain your commercial auto coverage at all cost!

Keep your business rolling with commercial auto insurance!

A Wide Range of Coverage

In addition to the required PIP and damage liability protection, you should give serious thought to these types of commercial vehicle coverage:

Medical payments for drivers - This coverage provides for ambulance, medical and funeral bills in the event that one of your drivers suffers injury or death in an accident. DMG.org notes that in many cases, medical payments coverage works hand-in-hand with your workers compensation coverage to provide optimal benefits to your workforce.

Comprehensive - Not every form of damage of vehicles occurs due to incidents involving other drivers. Natural disasters, vandalism, or unfortunate encounters with animals in the road can all damage or destroy your fleet. Comprehensive coverage provides an extra level of protection against these unpreventable events.

Uninsured or underinsured motorist - What do you do if the driver who hits you only has half the coverage necessary to provide for your repairs or other expenses -- or no coverage at all? When you have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, you don't have to worry about it. Your policy will pay the difference between what the motorist's policy can provide and what you actually need to get that vehicle back on the road again.

Premiums versus Deductibles

Commercial auto insurance has many similarities to other basic types of insurance, including the issue of premiums versus deductibles. You can expect to pay higher premiums in exchange for lower deductible amounts, and vice versa. While your business's budget may pose some constraints over what level of premium you can reliably maintain, think about how much you can afford to pay out of pocket for an accident or disaster -- and choose a deductible that won't break the company coffers when trouble strikes.

A lower deductible can save your business a lot of money.

Purchasing commercial auto insurance for your Florida business just makes good sense. After all, you worked hard to reach your current level of success -- why not take the necessary steps to stay there?

William Reynolds has worked as a freelance copywriter since 1997. William specializes in website content, ghost-blogging, print marketing content and audio/video scripts.